Obama sought to accentuate the positive from a set of figures that John Boehner, the Republican House speaker, said showed that “the president’s policies are failing too many Americans, many of whom have simply stopped looking for work”.

On Saturday, Obama said: “Yesterday, we learned that in 2013, our businesses created 2.2 million new jobs … and across our broader economy, there are signs of progress. Our manufacturing and housing sectors are rebounding. Our energy, technology and auto sectors are booming. Thanks in part to the reforms in the Affordable Care Act, health care costs now eat up less of our economy – over the past four years, costs have grown at the slowest rate on record. And since I took office, we’ve cut our deficits by more than half.”

Delivering the weekly GOP address, the Republican senator Thad Cochran, of Mississippi, kept his party's focus on the troubled rollout of the president's healthcare reform. He said: “Unfortunately, as this year begins many people are worried about how the so-called Affordable Care Act, also known as ‘Obamacare’, is affecting both their health and personal finances.

“Republicans in the Senate think we should repeal or defund the programme because of its cost and complexity.”

Obama said he would use his next major speech to kickstart his “year of action”. “At the end of the month,” he said, “in my State of the Union address, I will mobilise the country around the national mission of making sure our economy offers everyone who works hard a fair shot at opportunity and success. As Americans, that’s what we should expect.”

Obama said his “year of action” should “begin by extending unemployment insurance for Americans who were laid off in the recession through no fault of their own”.

He continued: “This vital economic lifeline helps people support their families while they look for a new job. And it demands responsibility in return by requiring that they prove they’re actively looking for work. But Republicans in Congress just let that lifeline expire for 1.3 million Americans. And if this doesn’t get fixed, it will actually hurt about 14 million Americans over the course of this year.

“Earlier this week, Democrats and Republicans in the Senate took the first steps toward making this right. But Congress needs to finish the job right away. More than one million Americans across the country will feel a little hope right away.”

On Tuesday, after the Senate bill passed, Boehner said: “One month ago I personally told the White House that another extension of temporary emergency unemployment benefits should not only be paid for but include something to help put people back to work.

“To date, the president has offered no such plan. If he does, I’ll be happy to discuss it, but right now the House is going to remain focused on growing the economy and giving America’s unemployed the independence that only comes from finding a good job.”